210 INTRODUCTION TO SCIENCE 



the time being wrapped up with the assumption 

 that the earth was the steadfast hub of the so- 

 lar system. Nbw-a-days, however, the religious 

 mind is not in the least excited over the question 

 whether the earth goes round the sun, or the sun 

 round the earth, and this has been one of the 

 uses of the "conflict between Science and Reli- 

 gion," that the particular "body" which a reli- 

 gious idea takes, has been more and more sublimed. 

 In most cases the religious idea has become clearer 

 in the process. 



We may say, then, that if the form or expres- 

 sion of a religious belief is contradictory to a well- 

 established fact in the order of Nature, then 

 clashing is inevitable. But to see in this an an- 

 tithesis between the scientific formula and the 

 religious idea is a misunderstanding. 



(6) In the second place, conflict and confusion 

 have arisen by misguided attempts to combine 

 religious and scientific formulations in the hope 

 of thus making things more intelligible. An 

 instance may be found in the history of theories 

 of organic evolution. The business of the scien- 

 tific evolutionist is to show how verifiable factors 

 may have co-operated to produce the marvellous 

 results which we see around us to-day. It goes 

 without saying that this task has not yet been 

 crowned with success. The results often seem 

 strangely out of proportion to the known causes, 



